It looks to me like The Economist threw the "Chinese" between Pakistanis and Moroccans as "trouble immigrants" according to Spaniards just to "balance things out." The Chinese, like the overwhelming majority of Far-East Asian immigrants, usually work hard, respect local laws and raise their kids in their adopted countries to become assimilated model citizens, and that's why their mention in this article clearly smells fishy.

To disqualify everything as plain 'racism' or 'xenophobia' is as wrong as can be both two attitudes. Catalonia has been taking in immigration for centuries coming from (other parts of) Spain, from France...besides there's quite common to meet families who has adopted children coming from China, Russia, ethiopia, etc. Catalan cultural groups increasingly take in people coming from other places as usually can be seen human castles groups (castellers).

The problems are of two kinds.

One, people is upset by behaviours that often seem weird. Muslim have some problems but also other social groups have problems and nobody speaks of racism. Just mention heavy presence of germans in Majorca or Britons elsewhere. Coments as 'they come and do not integrate' are not rare to be listen but it is rare to qualify it as racism or xenophoby.

The other problem is heavy competition for social resources and unqualified jobs. This is a big danger but to make guilty people for bad attitudes is just a smoke courtain. The real problem with that has been the very risky and plainly wrong bet of Spanish governments for economic growth based almost only on bricks and tourism. Something like having a diet exclusively based on chocolate instead of diversifying. This bet and the policy of open frontiers and full social benefits for newcomers legal or illegal make me think that the real racism and xenophoby in Catalonia and Spain has been against Catalan and Spanish people of lower classes, that have seen their propabilities to gain a decent life and to see their children with decent education and decent healthcare seriously in dificulties.

One more thing. Seriously some neighbourhoods around Barcelona seem places near to social explosion because of masses of middle aged men hanging around with no job. But again my thinking is not about racism but about how stupid have we all been believing the idea of 'Europe' is for R+D and third world is for heavy industry. No way. All the places in the world need a mix of R+D and neavy industry because not everybody is good to have a job about thinking but there are people that need to have a easy job in a manufacturing line.

At last, because it is true that plain racism and xenophoby is usually the result of poor formal education, excess of prejudices and heavy emotional manipulation before accusing locals of racism it is fair to wonder if those apparent victims of the former are more or less racists themselves. Because people coming from third world tend to have poor formal education, lots of religious and cultural prejudices and some of them have astonishing hability for emotional manipulation plus the energy that results of the fact that they made a hard bet coming to Europe and they feel compelled not to loose that bet. Sorry if somebody dislikes my comments. I know very good people coming from other places of the world but also know other people from elsewhere and locals whoo I would like to see very far away of the place where Im living. As everybody, I suppose.

Mr. Zapatero is a born party politician, not a statesman. He has a gift for entertainment and hollow grandstanding but lacks the wisdom and ability to direct the affairs of a major European country let alone for dealing with the crucial public issues of the day, say immigration or Spain’s staggering rate of unemployment.

The man is, thanks God, on his way out to history’s dustbin, but he’s leaving the country in such a bad condition that I’m afraid it may be beyond repair in some respects, employment being one of them.

To the story belongs that Mr. Zapatero and his coterie of social engineers have always favored unrestricted immigration of low-skilled workers, with the little disguised idea of facilitating their access to Spanish citizenship and hoping for them to become a trustworthy constituency of socialist voters. In fact in his seven ill-fated years in office they have toe-sensed the water several times to change the citizenship requirements but they just didn’t find an auspicious moment to do it. First there was a firm opposition by other EU members (particularly France) and then, the rising of unemployment just made it the project politically unviable.

The conservative Popular Party will have to deal with his poisonous legacy. I would like to believe they’ll be able to muster enough competence and courage as to implement rapidly the reforms the Spain desperately needs (like changing the labor laws, stop subsidizing the unions and cut to size the number of bureaucrats).

But I’m far from convinced that the opposition can be successful. They’d need to have a parliamentary majority and a clear cut will to transform the country’s political and economic base. They don’t look like, I’m afraid.

Hard to believe Spaniards will turn against immigration. Who is going to pick their strawberries? Who is going to clean their toilets? They forgot how these things are done, faster than any other Western nation. Getting up early and going to work was harder for them than for others. That, not hospitality, caused the largest influx in the West.

Remember the statistician who waded into a river with an average depth of one foot? He drowned.

12-14% immigrants in Spain may not seem much more than the 10% or so in most of Western Europe, but while Germany and France assimilated their immigrants over the past sixty years, Spain was not an immigration country until about ten years ago. Moreover, immigrants are unevenly spread: it is 0% in most small towns and posh parts of the provincial capitals, but up to 40% in many working class suburbs.

Andalusia, that you mention in your article, is a region that forms the south of Spain, with more than 8 million of citizens and an economy larger than most of EU´s countries. For it´s importance in and out of Spain I think you should devote a bit of your time and space to what is happening there.
And you would sell more.
The ERE-Gate is a complex scandal, at the same time wide and horrible, and full of funny micro-stories, like the one of the regional minister (socialist, of course) that to get a maximum retirement pension was registered as worker in a company from the very day that he was born.
And you have the umpteenth modernization plan of the Socialist Party, that in reality consists in legalizing the PSOE´s Parallel State against at least one sentence (concerning a false charity, the F.A.F.F.E) of the Regional Supremo, and many more that were coming.
Telling the story of how Andalusia descends into Fascism can be very interesting.
Finally, you can talk about the political landslide in favour of the Pp Party that is being forecasted. Will it take place? And, if it is so, will that party mean a real change or, like many Conservative governments in the XX Century 30s, will try to use the fascist laws and structures "for good purpuoses" instead of putting an end to them?. We all know how that goverments and their people´s ended.
The One Ring can do no good, for it was designed by and for the evil :)
There are lots of interesting work in research to do in Andalusia, dear journalists :) Let´s go! And good luck, if you confront The Party...

As an immigrant myself, I not only learned Spanish but Catalan in order to assimilate into my new home. I find offensive anyone who supports immigrants' "rights" to continue with their OLD norms and mores. You give them up once you arrive in your new home. Otherwise, why did you move to Barcelona or Spain? So all the immigrants who continue to wear head scarves, "pajamas" and other non-Western wear as statements to their "otherness" and refusal to be grateful to their new homeland, I say LEAVE. Return to the hell hole from whence you came. It is sad that the Raval in Barcelona will never realise its full potential as long as it is a Muslim ghetto. (Some of you will shriek, "Racist." No realist. (By the way, I am also a Socialist. Most of my Socialist friends support assimilation and an end to immigration from non-European/Western countries.)

I agree with you. The Spaniards are not racist. But sometimes are accused of this by idiots as you correctly pointed out.
But also the Spanish are not tolerant in my book.
They are ignorants, in general, not just immigration policy. They ignored the immigrants in the construction boom because of easy money and the cheapness of the services provided by immigrants (baby sitting, cheap construction workers, cheap private nurses for the old, etc...), not tolerated the foreigners.
Nowadays, the immigrant is the perfect imaginary enemy, amplified by the press to win votes for the Right.
The Spaniards have much to learn in being tolerant. But definitely 99% of them are not racists.

Supposedly Spain is the 7th economy of the planet. Yet the number of comments on the Economist, regarding articles about Spanish issues are quite low, at least when compared with articles about Germany, Turkey, UK or France. Seems to me, that the readers of this magazine don't care about Spain that much.

Regarding racism or xenophobic attitudes, all you have to do, is learn spanish, and read the comments on sites like www.abc.es or www.elmundo.es on hot issues such as immigration. And these are websites of major Spanish newspapers. Granted, the comments on newspapers sites, aren't a huge pool of data to draw conclusions upon. But still, quite an eye opener.

Juan A Hervada - Absolutely, of course Zapatero did not encourage immigration, he merely gave legal protection (you had to have a contract to get it though) to the huge numbers of illegals who had flooded in unregulated under Aznar. Anyone saying anything else is not keeping to the fact.

Unfortunately this article is not keeping to the facts either. Any respectable journalist who says that Barcelona is in danger of falling to the conservative People's Party should have his press card torn up. Why is it that mere ignorance of the facts does not seem to trouble people grandstanding on Spanish issues while if it was France, they'd never get away with it. Just my observation, following the Guardian's Spanish coverage in their Europe series.

I included all Europeans in my comments. Yes, there are some Muslim Europeans from the Balkans but they share a common European culture with the rest of us. I am sure you are one of the first who would complain about an American, or American tourists. Certain, elitist Europeans find it ok to tolerate certain immigrant groups but are outraged by anyone from North America.

Being a Socialist does not mean I am spineless and don't see the myth of multiculturism. One only has to look at the failed attempts at Consociationalism to know that each society needs an underlying, unifying culture.

Certainly as student of english language I learned about short sentences, etc. I present my excuses to eventual readers of my comments. I’ll do my best but I’m not planning to stay strictly on ‘my taylor is rich’.

Communicating confussion when speaking about spanish affairs is not at all communicating badly. Often confussion is all over the place.

Reasons to confussion.

First, poor use of english language is the main cause. Of course, that’s my fault

Second,
We have in Spain plenty of grey zones. Our languages not surprisingly are well fit to that.. Political life often is performed as serial quarrels plenty of angry declarations on secondary details. Rarely the focus is put on the main affair. Real politic develops beyond this ’Irse por las ramas’. Openly but out of focus. Very good illusionists.

During the last decade immigration has been present in the public debate. But the main issue (out of focus) was not racism but how to keep on the constant flow of easier and cheaper available manpower. Racism was always invoked as a preventive attack againts anybody who dared to say something that could raise doubts about free admission . Any ‘What if we are a little more stricts’ was followed by the immediate disqualification ‘racist’.

So eastern europeans are out of the equation? They shouldn't be allowed to immigrate to Spain or other western countries? Just asking, what's your take on this, your comment is not 100% clear in this regard.
And do your many Socialist friends say about eastern europeans?

Whatever else Zapatero can be accused of, I personally don't think that the immigation policy was engineered to help the socialists cling to power.

The immigration was essentially linked to the economic boom, and now that the economy is faltering, the influx of immigrants has reduced considerably.

I don't think that it is clear that immigrants will necessarily vote for the socialists, or at least, the ones with their papers in order who can vote in local and regional elections. Look at Madrid, large immigrant population, and currently a stronghold of the PP. Paradoxically, immigrants who can vote may well favor parties that seem to take a hardline against illegal immigrants as they will face less competition for the few openings currently available.

I do not know where your correspondent buys his suits - perhaps in a mercadillo? - but it beggars belief that he should write that Valencia's Paco Camps is accused of receiving expensive suits from subcontractors, when the suits came from the "Milano" stores where it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to pay more than 200 euros for a suit.

Whether Camps has accepted such gifts or whether he paid for them is another matter - but EXPENSIVE? Come on!

To pandemonic:
The suits that Francisco Camps 'received' were worth a lot more that €200.

Without being disrespectful, I recommend that some of the participants here should keep their comments short and simple (that's what we do in English). In Spanish, you use much longer sentences, which translated into English lose their meaning.

'Coments as 'they come and do not integrate' are not rare to be listen but it is rare to qualify it as racism or xenophoby.'

'This is a big danger but to make guilty people for bad attitudes is just a smoke courtain.'

'All the places in the world need a mix of R+D and neavy industry because not everybody is good to have a job about thinking but there are people that need to have a easy job in a manufacturing line.' (What is 'a job about thinking'?)

'At last, because it is true that plain racism and xenophoby is usually the result of poor formal education, excess of prejudices and heavy emotional manipulation before accusing locals of racism it is fair to wonder if those apparent victims of the former are more or less racists themselves. Because people coming from third world tend to have poor formal education, lots of religious and cultural prejudices and some of them have astonishing hability for emotional manipulation plus the energy that results of the fact that they made a hard bet coming to Europe and they feel compelled not to loose that bet'

'To the story belongs that Mr. Zapatero and his coterie of social engineers have always favored unrestricted immigration of low-skilled workers, with the little disguised idea of facilitating their access to Spanish citizenship and hoping for them to become a trustworthy constituency of socialist voters. In fact in his seven ill-fated years in office they have toe-sensed the water several times to change the citizenship requirements but they just didn’t find an auspicious moment to do it. First there was a firm opposition by other EU members (particularly France) and then, the rising of unemployment just made it the project politically unviable. '

'And, if it is so, will that party mean a real change or, like many Conservative governments in the XX Century 30s, will try to use the fascist laws and structures "for good purpuoses" instead of putting an end to them?. We all know how that goverments and their people´s ended.
The One Ring can do no good, for it was designed by and for the evil :)
There are lots of interesting work in research to do in Andalusia, dear journalists :) Let´s go! And good luck, if you confront The Party...'

@belneluxa re-"biaix I agree with you. The Spaniards are not racist. But sometimes are accused of this by idiots as you correctly pointed out."
Yes they are,not necessarily more or less than others but yes racist.All races and nations have racists-to generalise about a country or people is inconsequential.